Microelectronics typically involve the use of thin semiconductor materials such as silicon wafers that may be formed into individual units or dies. Such elements are often used in integrated circuits (ICs) that may be subsequently installed onto printed circuit boards (PCBs). The field of Microelectronics has rapidly expanded over the last few decades with a demand for performance, greater storage or memory capacity and area reduction. Additionally, cost reduction is a continual concern that greatly influences the development of new microelectronic technologies and procedures. These demands on the industry have led to the increased complexity of the design of the ICs and other microscale structures.
A simple IC structure with very few components could be designed and configured manually. However, today the typical IC will consist of more than a billion transistors which generates a variety of complex problems to be resolved in placement to ensure the IC functions properly. These problems continue to increase in complexity and quantity as the demand for more storage, speed, and functionality increases. As such, these complex configurations have led to the development of a variety of rules which intern has developed into tools and other related software to help automate the process of design the microelectronic structures. The industry standard is the use of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) or use of computers to design and test the overall design and configuration of the IC. EDA tools often involve the use of software programs and large complex databases that aid in the design and configuration of the microelectronics.
The EDA tools have limitations on the size of databases that can be used. The size limitation on the EDA databases and development of multi-layer die structures may exceed the capabilities of the infrastructure of EDA users. For example, the complexity of a design will greatly increase when combining the principles of 3-D stacking because each level must function with the adjoining levels of the stack. The complexity of design and problem solving for manufacturing and testing can prove to be too much for an EDA database and users.